If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Options
Essential support for under 25s
Essential support for under 25s
Take a look around and enjoy reading the discussions. If you'd like to join in, it's really easy to register and then you'll be able to post. If you'd like to learn what this place is all about, head here.
Comments
alot of drugs out there are very impure, the NHS is going to have to deal with their problems at the end of the day, whether they accquired them legally or illegally, the government should allow people the freedom to take drugs but at the same time tell them what the potential problems are, i know it hasn't worked magnificantly with tobacoo, but lets face it, the majority of new smokers are teens who want to act cool, or whatever, i think they should make drugs legal for adults and give rehabilitation to under age users to teach them the truth about drugs so they can make an infromed decision in the future, or something like that.
I think we should learn from our mistakes. Encourage less drug use not more.
I have no doubt in the not-too-distant future people will think of our world and society as barbarian, for imprisoning people who chose to take drugs for their own recreation; just as we view the people of the Middle Ages as barbarian for imprisoning and torturing people who chose not to believe in the God of choice or to worship a 'different' one.
true but as long as there are problems in society, drugs will always be in demand, we have to get to the root of social problems before we even consider removing drugs, it's not drugs fault that people take drugs, some do it for pleasure yes but for alot of it is escapism, and if people are escaping from something, then logically there is a jailer, who is the jailer, drugs are a resort for many, if we don't rid ourselves of these problems then the only solution is to accept the use but control it at the same time, the methodology of this, i'm not sure, but for me, it'd be more logical to legalise them.
Actually the jury is still out on this one. I agree that it is not good for some people's mental health, but it doesn't seem to cause any long lasting damage. Yes, it can precipate pyschosis in a small minority of people, but the general consensus seems to be that it only does this for people that are pre-disposed to it.
For the vast majority of people, the symptoms dissapear a few weeks after stopping smoking.
No, it's not harmless, but in moderation its not too bad.
P.S.
No, I don't smoke it.
To counteract sleepiness? That makes no sense.
Most health care professionals I know are in favour of legalising cannabis.
good quality drugs do little damage to the vast majority who use them sensibly.
of course there are those who abuse but ...guess what? the majority use and do not abuse.
canadas biggest export is now cannabis ...do you see the nation breaking down? do you see its medical facilities cracking under the strain?
illegal drugs as i mentioned before are equal in financial terms with the other two giant global money makers ...oil and armaments. drug consumption on this level should ...if the health risks were anywhere near as bad as some fear ...be crippling the medical resources of most nations and this is not the case why?
cos MOST people are sensible about their use.
people can be trusted you know.
no i am not saying there are no risks ...
legalising means getting responsible about something that will NEVER EVER go away. drug use is not new ...it's been with us since the year dot.
being illegal means no quality control.
it means the biggest tax free movement of cash in history ...all going into the hands of terrorists and gangsters.
being illegal means massive social problems ...gun crime and violence as people who make these phenominal ammounts of cash every day ...fight to take over or hkeep control of areas.
surely the fight against terrorism should involve removing easy ways to make millions upon millions in every currency going.
being illegal is a way of shunning responsibility.
legalising means ...taking control of production distribution quality.
no one wants to legalise things in a way that would allow street corner dealers ...it would have to liciensed.
why is ok for drug companies to sell viagra ...it's not a life saving medicine ...for some it solves a problem ...for most it is taken for pleasure.
legalising means taking responsibility.
keeping things the way they are ...is irresponsible and dangerous.
the drugs industry were up in arms ...the sale of valium and pain killers would have been under serious threat.
the oil companies were up in arms ...one of the main reasons hemp was banned in america was cos much polluting synthetics made from from oil ...nylon and such ...had been invented ...millions of acres around the world produced fibres for ropes and ships sails ...millions of canvas products were to be replaced by synthetics ...the oil industry s the main culprit for making it illegal. nothing at all to do with health.
jimmy carter was incensed that the punishment for possesion of cannabis was far more damaging to the individual than the cannabis itself. perfectly normal families torn apart by jail sentences ...criminal records and such.
why on earth should the state be able to punish me for smoking daffodils? i have smoked the stuff for over 36 years now as have millions like me.
i'm not going to rob or murder your granny!
i live a very active responsible and healthy lifestyle ...why should anyone be allowed to damage threaten or destroy that?
Ok cannabis is by no means the safest drug on the 'market' (there are individuals - some would say predisposed individuals - who may succumb to mental ill health at some point in their life) but alcohol is the major cause of personal and mental instability in our society. I've spoke to many ex IV drug users who have turned to alcohol for solace and have asked them what was the easier drug to pack in. Alcohol or heroin. And invariably they will tell you that the easiest to pack in is heroin. The withdrawal symptoms from opiates are far far less than that from alcohol.
I personally believe that heroin should be decriminalised simply because of the shit that is cut into your average 'bag' of brown. Think about it...that one £10 bag has most probably been produced in Afghanistan (well that's another argument innit
One main problem is that even if the batch is safe but of a low potency, at times there are 'pure' batches of high potency that hit the streets. Now if your average IV user does not know what doseage (purity) they are taking with the low potency batch, how on earth are they supposed to tell what doseage they would be taking with a 'pure' batch.
Oh god I'm rambling on just now and I suppose I should open it up for others to have their say. I find the whole subject fascinating...
Over to you
where the heroin has done little or more usualy no damage at all ...the alcohol wreaks havoc.
the person has stopped taking heroin but hasn't actualy dealt with the emotional/psycological problems that give them the addictive personality that they have so ...the warm buzz of the booze becomes their new drug of choice and they loose control. damaging their minds and bodies in a very serious way.
it is very common indeed for drug addicts to switch to booze with devastating results.
September 8, 1988
By Michael Isikoff
A Drug Enforcement Administration administrative law judge, calling marijuana "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man," recommended yesterday that the drug be made legally available for some medical purposes, including treatment of cancer patients.
http://www.crrh.org/cannabis/dea.html
http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/DrDrew/history.html#9
Abraham Lincoln responded to this kind of repressive mentality in December, 1840, when he said:
"Prohibition . . . goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes . . . A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.
all about the cannabis plant and the desire to eradicate it ...the perfect plant ...the plant that could change the world environmentaly and economicaly.
imagine the oil industries wealth going to farmers ...the manufacture of thousands of environmentaly freindly products from clothes to paint and paper ...foods and medicines for people and animals ...machine oils and fuels ...you name it this plant could provide almost all and any of it!
but the oil industry don't want YOU ...to know the truth about hemp and cannabis.
.http://jenty.ghost.lt/info/
And, in light of subsequent developments (e.g. biomass energy technology, building materials, etc.), we now know that hemp is the world's most important ecological resource and therefore, potentially our planet's single largest industry. (this was written in 1937 in 'popular mechanics' ...an american publication)
The Popular Mechanics article was the very first time in American history that the term "billion-dollar"* was ever applied to any U.S. agricultural crop!
*Equivalent to $40-$80 billion now.
Experts today conservatively estimate that, once fully restored in America, hemp industries will generate $500 billion to a trillion dollars per year, and will save the planet and civilization from fossil fuels and their derivatives - and from deforestation!
I totally agree that alcohol causes major problems and is one of the most important potentially preventable causes of healthcare expenditure (after tobacco and obesity).
However, that in itself is not a justification for the legalisation of drugs. Even cannabis.
I've spent time with the community mental health services (only as an observer) and it was shocking how many people with "schizophrenia" (more often than not following a drug induced psychosis) had cannabis listed as a risk factor. It may not be directly causative, and there is undoubtedly cross-over between the type of person at risk from mental ill-health and those likely to take cannabis on a regular basis, but surely we as a society have a responsibility to prevent as much illness as we reasonably can? Cannabis does break up families, and not because its illegal.
I can't accept that alcohol being bad justifies legalising cannabis. It's a self-defeating argument. (Unless there is evidence that former cannabis users use alcohol instead - I haven't come across any such evidence but it may exist). I too find it interesting. I won't pretend to have a quick fix solution, but I wouldn't accept the legalisation of any substance harmful to health. (It is for the same reason that I object to the super casinos).
Prohibition is such a broad term. Driving at 70 in a 30 zone is prohibited. Is that law bad too?
lets talk about the health benefits of cannabis ...
The Emperor Wears No Clothes
Chapter 7
Therapeutic Use of Cannabis
There are more than 60 therapeutic compounds in cannabis that are healing agents in medical and herbal treatments. The primary one is THC, and the effectiveness of therapy is directly proportionate to the herb's potency or concentration of THC. Recent DEA reports of increasingly potent marijuana therefore represent a major medical advance; but, incredibly, the government uses these very numbers to solicit bigger budgets and harsher penalties.
On November 5, 1996, 56% of California citizens voted for the California Compassionate Use Act (medical marijuana initiative) ending all legal state efforts to keep marijuana from being used as medicine by California citizens.
Arizona citizens, in November 1996, also passed, by an even greater margin - 65% - a drug declassification initiative that included medical marijuana, backed by, among others, the late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater.
Arizona's governor and legislature, exercising their veto override ability on their state initiative laws for the first time in 90 years, struck down this popular initiative passed by the people Arizona citizens angrily responded by re-collecting more than 150,000 signatures in a 90-day referendum period and promptly returned the medical marijuana initiative to the ballot for November 1998.
The following explains how people will benefit when the freedom of choice of doctors and patients is once again respected.
Warning:
This writer, responsible scientists and doctors advise:
There is no pharmacological free lunch in cannabis or any drug. Negative reactions can result. A small percentage of people have negative or allergic reactions to marijuana. Heart patients could have problems, even though cannabis generally relieves stress, dilates the arteries, and in general lowers the diastolic pressure. A small percentage of people get especially high heart rates and anxieties with cannabis. These persons should not use it. Some bronchial asthma sufferers benefit from cannabis; however, for others it may serve as an additional irritant.
For the overwhelming majority of people, cannabis has demonstrated literally hundreds of therapeutic uses. Among them:
ASTHMA
More than 15 million Americans are affected by asthma. Smoking cannabis (the "raw drug" as the AMA called it) would be beneficial for 80% of them and add 30-a60 million person-years in the aggregate of extended life to current asthmatics over presently legal toxic medicines such as the Theophylline prescribed to children. "Taking a hit of marijuana has been known to stop a full blown asthma attack." (Personal communication with Dr. Donald Tashkin, December 12, 1989 and December 1, 1997.) The use of cannabis for asthmatics goes back thousands of years in literature. American doctors of the last century wrote glowing reports in medical papers that asthma sufferers of the world would "bless" Indian hemp (cannabis) all their lives. Today, of the 16 million American asthma sufferers, only Californians, with a doctor's recommendation, can legally grow and use cannabis medicines, even though it is generally the most effective treatment for asthma.
Fourteen percent of all blindness in America is from glaucoma, a progressive loss of vision. Cannabis smoking would benefit 90% of our 2.5 million glaucoma victims, and is two to three times as effective as any current medicines for reducing ocular pressure! Cannabis use has no toxic side effects to the liver and kidneys; nor is there any danger of the occasional sudden death syndromes associated with the legal pharmaceutical glaucoma drugs/drops. Many California eye doctors, through the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, discreetly advised their patients to use "street" marijuana in addition to (or to mitigate) their toxic legal glaucoma medicines. Since November 1996, California doctors can legally recommend, advise or tacitly approve cannabis use by their glaucoma patients who may then grow and smoke their own marijuana, or go to the few remaining Cannabis Buyers' Clubs to acquire medical marijuana. (Harvard; Hepler & Frank, 1971, UCLA; Medical College of Georgia; U. of North Carolina School of Medicine, 1975; Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, UCLA, 1976; National Eye Institute; Records of Bob Randolph/Elvy Musika, 1975, 1998.)